Raw Food Healing Diets

Next in declining order of healing effectiveness is what I call a
raw food healing diet or cleansing diet. It consists of those very
same watery fruits and nonstarchy vegetables one juices or makes
into vegetable broths, but eaten whole and raw. Heating food does
two harmful things: it destroys many vitamins, enzymes and other
nutritional elements and it makes many foods much harder to digest.
So no cooked vegetables or fruits are allowed because to maintain
health on this limited regimen it is essential that every possible
vitamin and enzyme present in the food be available for digestion.
Even though still raw, no starchy or fatty vegetables or fruits are
allowed that contain concentrated calories like potatoes, winter
squash, avocados, sweet potatoes, fresh raw corn, dates, figs,
raisins, or bananas. And naturally, no salad dressings containing
vegetable oils or (raw) ground seeds are allowed. Nor are raw grains
or other raw concentrated energy sources.

When a person starts this diet they will at first experience
considerable weight loss because it is difficult to extract a large
number of calories from these foods (though I have seen people
actually gain weight on a pure melon diet, so much sugar do these
fruits have, and well-chewed watermelon seeds are very nourishing).
Eating even large quantities of only raw fruit and raw non-starchy
vegetables results in a slow but steady healing process about 10 to
20 percent as rapid as water fasting.

A raw food cleansing diet has several huge advantages. It is
possible to maintain this regimen and regularly do non-strenuous
work for many months, even a year or more without experiencing
massive weight loss and, more important to some people, without
suffering the extremes of low blood sugar, weakness and loss of
ability to concentrate that happen when water fasting. Someone on a
raw food cleanse will have periods of lowered energy and strong
cravings for more concentrated foods, but if they have the
self-discipline to not break their cleansing process they can
accomplish a great deal of healing while still maintaining more or
less normal (though slower paced) life activities. However, almost
no one on this diet is able to sustain an extremely active
life-style involving hard physical labor or competitive sports. And
from the very beginning someone on a raw food cleanse must be
willing and able to lie down and rest any time they feel tired or
unable to face their responsibilities. Otherwise they will
inevitably succumb to the mental certainty that their feelings of
exhaustion or overwhelm can be immediately solved by eating some
concentrated food to "give them energy." Such low-energy states
will, however, pass quickly after a brief nap or rest.

Something else gradually happens to a body when on such a diet. Do
you recall that I mentioned that after my own long fast I began to
get more "mileage" out of my food. A cleansed, healed body becomes
far more efficient at digestion and assimilation; a body that is
kept on a raw food cleansing diet will initially lose weight
rapidly, but eventually weight loss slows to virtually nothing and
then stabilizes. However, long-term raw fooders are usually thin as
toothpicks.

Once starchy vegetables like potatoes or winter squash, raw or
cooked, or any cereals, raw or cooked, are added to a cleansing
diet, the detoxification and healing virtually ceases and it becomes
very easy to maintain or even gain weight, particularly if larger
quantities of more concentrated foods like seeds and nuts are eaten.
Though this diet has ceased to be cleansing, few if any toxins from
misdigestion will be produced and health is easy to maintain.

"Raw fooders" are usually people who have healed themselves of a
serious diseases and ever after continue to maintain themselves on
unfired food, almost as a matter of religious belief. They have
become convinced that eating only raw, unfired food is the key to
extraordinarily long life and supreme good health. When raw fooders
wish to perform hard physical work or strenuous exercise, they'll
consume raw nuts and some raw grains such as finely-ground oats
soaked overnight in warm water or deliciously sweet "Essene bread,"
made from slightly sprouted wheat that is then ground wet, made into
cakes, and sun baked at temperatures below about 115 degrees
Fahrenheit. Essene bread can be purchased in some health food
stores. However, little or no healing or detoxification can happen
once concentrated energy sources are added to the diet, even raw
ones.

During my days at Great Oaks School I was a raw fooder for some
years, though I found it very difficult to maintain body heat on raw
food during chilly, rainy Oregon winters and eventually struck a
personal compromise where I ate about half my diet raw and the rest
fired. I have listed some books by raw fooders in the Bibliography.
Joe Alexander's is the most fun.